online dating tips, tutorials, experiences, and advice

Just when you thought it might be safe to let your guard down during online dating, this article from The St. Petersburg Times reminds us that there are still some strange ones out there. While there are thousands of amazing men and women using online dating, always remember to play it safe because that initially meeting might bring unexpected surprises.

One online dater writes "Imagine my shock as I saw him with a great-grandmother-looking woman. He introduced his mom. I almost passed out." Check out the rest of the bad experiences these Floridians had by reading the full article.

Love@AOL has just released the results from its "Dating Index". Based on regionalized surveys in 20 key markets, the Love@AOL "Dating Index" measures where a single person is most likely to have a good or bad date. Survey respondents were asked to give their city a "Dating GPA," based on things like ease of getting dates within the region, number of places to go out on dates, and so on. The individual grades were tallied with answers to a number of other dating-related questions. The cities were then ranked in the Love@AOL survey's "Dating Index."

Some notable changes in the rankings this year: New York has changes from a "Best Dating City" in 2005 to a "Worst Dating City" on this year's list. And Washington D.C. has changed from a top ten "Best" ranking in 2005 to achieving the dubious honor of being the #1 "Worst City For Dating" in 2006. Atlanta continues to earn its "Hotlanta" nickname, holding its position as the No. 1 "Best Dating City" for the second year in the row. Los Angeles also holds steady, keeping its second place ranking for the second year.

An article in NewsofDelawareCounty.com incorporates online dating into its Valentine's Day advice, but, in reading the article, I couldn't help but notice a blatant contradiction toward the end of the article, which otherwise provides some good tips to online daters.

Gail Barsky of coachingforsingles.com, who specializes in coaching separated and divorced singles states in the article that singles should "carefully screen the profile, get phone numbers at work and home and check the person out first to make sure they are who they say they are." And then the article goes on to say that Barsky notes that "getting a cell phone number only could be a red flag that your potential mate could be involved with someone else." Even though Barsky warns singles to be cautious of those who only provide their cell phone number, she goes on to "caution women to give out their cell phone numbers until they are comfortable with the person."

Even though online dating is becoming more and more mainstream, I think it is only common sense to avoid giving out your home or work number (regardless of whether you are male or female) and singles should not be suspicious if a potential match does not want to give out this information before meeting. It should be a common practice, only give that sort of personal information after you have met and gotten to know your date. If you have started a relationship and your partner then refuses to give you his or her home number, then you might have cause for concern, but not when in the beginning stages of online dating.

An estimated 40 million U.S. singles have tried online dating, according to research reports. With Valentines' day just around the corner, Paltalk, a real time voice and video chat community online, offers helpful hints to enhance the online dating experience. Here are Paltalk’s tips for having a pleasant online dating experience:

- Spend time on your profile, ensuring there are current photos and videos along with a list of keywords that accurately capture your interests. That picture you took ten years ago might be your best ever photo, but if it's not an accurate reflection of your current self, it's time to pull out the digital camera for retakes.

- Invite a friend to start online dating at the same time. You can critique each other's profiles and share stories about the people you've met, for better or for worse.

- Consider a virtual date before an in person one. You can be more relaxed and at ease at first getting to know someone from the comfort of your own home. After things go well, you can opt for an in-person meeting.

- If someone looks interesting, be bold and make contact. You have nothing to lose by sending a message.

A new poll done by Harris Interactive shows that over 33,000 eHarmony members married in a twelve month period ending August 31, 2005. This averages out to 90 singles marrying each day that were introduced to their partner through eHarmony.

Dr. Neil Warren, eHarmony founder (and the guy you see on all the commercials), said that the poll results were "a true testament to the effectiveness of eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System(TM). It is also further proof of what I have learned over 35 years of working with married couples and that is broad based compatibility is the key to finding the love of your life."

Harris conducted a nationwide poll of people who married between September 1, 2004 and August 31, 2005 and this research found that 16,630 marriages resulted from eHarmony matches during this period. So, it looks like eHarmony is a pretty good choice for those of you looking to find your future marriage partner.